As jc below says, tar + dust in extreme cases can damage electronics and contacts. If you touch and repair such a machine, it can easily happen that soon something else will stop working, but then it will be Apple’s responsibility because it has been opened by their mechanics. However, I do find it troublesome that Apple can, it seems, refuse repairs at their discretion.

More likely, the pitting isn’t your hands absorbing aluminum, but rather your skin oils tarnishing the anodization, and subsequent “rusting” of aluminum when exposed to air.

I worked as a Mac Genius, and as an outside AASP tech, for many many years. I probably rejected a dozen or so tar-destroyed machines in my time, both while working for Apple and elsewhere. In a few cases, I also refused to work on them.

But it wasn’t just because they were used by smokers. In all cases, the insides of the computers were literally destroyed by a disgusting, gooey mix of tar and dust. This miasma doesn’t just discolor, it can actually corrode internal parts; it destroys solder points, it shorts electrical connections, and it … for lack of better words … dissolves some plastics and rubbers. It also destroys bearings in case fans and other mechanical parts.

I probably repaired several thousand computers in my time, some very large percentage were used by smokers, and their warranties were honored without issue. On very rare occasion, though, we’d see a machine that was utterly destroyed on the insides, and those warranties were not honored.

There’s an old saying among cooks: “The hand that cooks your food, wipes my ass.” Tobacco on someone’s hands is the least of your worries.

If you are too squeamish, you shouldn’t go outside; there are vehicle emissions, halitosis, perfume, and according to the UN meetings on global warming, methane gas flatulence from cows destroying the ozone layer, all equally offensive and potentially just as unhealthy.

Regarding the actual thread: My opinion is that consumer PC’s are designed and sold to work in the average home or office, not in a commercial computer clean room where air, dust, and temperature is regulated and filtered. Smoking in your own home or personal office IS NOT ILLEGAL, therefore computers can be and are exposed to all manner of air-borne whatnot, from kitchen smoke to cat dander, dust, and yes, tobacco smoke.

To suggest that inert nicotine stains (and the resultant smell) on a device is harmful to someone doing computer repair is the height of specious fraud – there is no airborne (so called, “second-hand”) smoke in or on the machine; smoke does not magically reappear – it dissipated days, weeks, or months ago. A “repair technician” is more likely to be injured by someone sneezing near the computer leaving germs residing in the CPU than from tobacco stains on plastic or metal.

As a man that has not been neutered physically or psychically, I still enjoy the occasional cigar and glass of brandy, and if I choose to smoke near the computer there are no legal proscriptions prohibiting doing so, and companies like Apple cannot make a claim that OSHA prohibits working on devices with nicotine smell – the nicotine and other chemicals are not airborne, they are inert and harmless. The Apple Care warranty does not state that, “Computer equipment must pass the olfactory standards of our most sensitive technician before servicing,” that is complete nonsense.

I’d like to see someone sue Apple for a violation of the ADA by claiming that, like an alcoholic, a tobacco smoker has a disabling addiction and Apple is discriminating against tobacco smokers.

As for the people screaming “OMG!!! SECONDHAND SMOKE!!!”, clam down! It’s not like the machine is spewing tobacco smoke constantly. It’s not going to hurt you, so quit crying.

http://www.apple.com/support/products/proplan.html
http://www.apple.com/legal/applecare/appgeos.html

For the longest time, Apple couldn’t sell it’s “AppleCare Protection Plan” to consumers in Florida (only education and small business) because of some law in Florida that required Apple make a 100 million dollar “fund” in the state of florida to protect consumers. It’s some really long and huge thing that I’d rather not try to explain here. Either way, it’s not the case anymore. I think apple was able to sell to Florida consumers in 2007.

Anyway, since it’s not a warranty, Apple has some jargon in there that they can basically deny any and all repairs. They could deny every single repair to all AppleCare customer and legally, we can’t do anything about it.

So despite the fact that this is a PR nightmare for Apple, they’re not legally doing anything wrong.

I tend to side with the international foundation dedicated to health issues.